Bicycle Austin forum

MichaelBluejay

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From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,455

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Austin high school seniors call for congestion pricing

Two high school seniors (!) have a column in the Austin Chronicle saying that transit alone won't fix our traffic woes (true) and calling for congestion pricing, as is done in some other major cities.

First, it's refreshing when car critics acknowledge that transit doesn't solve traffic problems.  If it did, we'd expect building new traffic lanes to do the same thing, but we know they don't.  Many car critics are quick to point out that extra highway capacity doesn't work while at the same time claiming that transit "takes X cars off the roads".  We can't have it both ways, and these young columnists get that.

Second, it seems like the next generation might really be on the ball.  Happy to see this.